We spent 8 days in Rota, exploring the small town, cleaning the boat, and doing other small tasks. We went to Cadiz for one day, which is on the other side of the bay from Rota. It was a nice city, and we ate some good food, enjoying walking through the old streets. We caught the evening ferry back to our marina, and enjoyed being at sea at night, with someone else to worry about not hitting anything.
After a week plus in Rota we were ready to go, and the winds finally looked acceptable for crossing through Gibraltar. We checked out of the marina, and had the sails up around 9:30. This was our first sail, just the two of us on a boat. Every other time we had been to sea, there had been someone with us, either an instructor or captain, that we could rely on to know what was going on, or a friend that we could ask to help. This passage was to be the first time we double handed a boat, and we had a long way to go. The wind was a little elusive all day, and we made a few sail changes and tacks before motoring the last couple miles into the anchorage we had chosen for the night, arriving well after dark. We dropped anchor in five meters of water in Ensenada de Bolonia, and slept fairly well, knowing it would be the last good sleep for a while. It would have been cool to see the anchorage in the daylight, but our routing was fairly insistent that we needed to get moving.
We got underway in the dark the next morning, not bothering with sails as we knew we faced a headwind through the straight. Luckily, upon setting off, we discovered a current as strong as four knots running with us, nearly doubling our speed over ground. This was fortunate, as our motors seemed to be less efficient than usual. As we rounded the lighthouse at Tarifa and officially entered the straight we were contacted by traffic control, stating that we were invisible on their AIS. This was not a positive development, as AIS is what allows vessels to see each other on their instrument screens. We could see everyone else, but they could not see us. We made some investigations, and found that our AIS unit was receiving, but not transmitting, and the error light was illuminated. Kate spent a few hours working the problem, but we were unable to get it to work. Something to take care of in La Grande Motte.
Transiting the Strait of Gibraltar was really cool. The walls of Europe and Africa rear up on either side, creating a channel through which an incredible amount of shipping moves every day. We cautiously hugged the Spanish coast, dodging locals out for the day fishing, and passing the old ruins of watchtowers built on rocky promontories. The currents were wild, with boils coming up from the depths, and strange waves created by the wind interacting with the water. We were passed by two charter catamarans under full motor, presumably being delivered to their future cruising grounds. Poking along at our own pace, we passed the rock of Gibraltar, and made our way into the Mediterranean Sea, and some wind.
Getting the sails up and turning the engines off was a relief. Feeling the boat accelerate, and hearing the water begin rushing by the hull reminds us that this is a sailboat, not a motorboat. As the fans from the engines perform their shutdown routine, and go silent, we become more in tune with the ocean environment we are navigating. Our boat is a little like a spaceship, self sufficient, and sustaining our lives in an environment otherwise utterly hostile to humans. We eat, sleep, and live confined in the small space of our boat, but feeling just about as free as one can, as we travel towards our next destination.
We spend three nights at sea. The first two are fairly perfect, and we leave big sails up all night. On the third day we decide to bypass Formentera and Ibiza, and try to make it to Palma. This is an extra 90 miles, and will put us in a little more weather than we would generally like, but we think it will be worth it to be that much closer to our destination. We tuck two reefs into the main, and hoist the staysail. Feeling pretty secure in that rather conservative sail configuration, we go into our night watch schedule; three hours on and three hours off.
For most of the night the wind stays around 25 knots which is fine, enough to keep us going, and not scary. We round the light on the southern tip of Formentera, and jibe to the north, to try to be in the wind shadow of the islands for the wind we think is coming. In the early hours of the morning the winds start to bounce off the 30 knot mark, and we are glad of our boat, and the sails we have up. Boat speed oscillates between 7 and 15 knots, depending on the surfs we get from the large, short-period wind swell. We have no trouble staying awake during these watches. As we come ripping along the channel separating Ibiza and Mallorca, we overtake the two charter boats that passed us in the Strait of Gibraltar. It is gratifying to know we sailed all that way while they were under motor, and we were still faster.
Dawn is washed out by high clouds, and some low-level nimbus, scudding along, driven by the same wind that powers us towards Mallorca. We enter the bay that holds Palma around sunrise, and get the sails down in large waves and strong wind. Hoping our chosen anchorage will be a good one we motor the last mile towards a small defile in the cliff band. The waves stop and the wind goes silent, and we drop our anchor through five meters of water onto sand. We are in an idyllic little cove, with an eyesore of a housing development on the north side. There is one other boat, but he soon leaves, and we take his spot, a little more tucked in out of the remnants of the swell. It rains a bit and we go to sleep.
The next morning is bright and sunny. Kate bravely puts on a wetsuit, tosses her running gear into a little swim float/ dry bag combo and swims to shore for a run. I set up my hammock. It looks like we are going to be in the Balearic Islands for some time until the weather sorts itself out and we can make the final push to La Grande Motte for Outremer to do their post production work on the boat. There isn’t much wrong, really, but there are some issues that definitely need attention.
The next ten days are spent checking the weather constantly. We moved from our small anchorage and spent two nights tied up in Palma. Walking around town we are surprised with the friendliness of the locals, as we had read of the massive anti-tourist protests during the summer. We ate some good food, and checked out the maze of streets in the old town. Riding our Onewheels all over town was a great way to explore, enabling us to cover more ground in less time.
We left Palma on the third day, mid morning. Beating into 20 knots we were secure in the knowledge that it would soon be on our beam as we turned the corner out of Palma’s bay. Another afternoon of enjoyable sailing followed as we easily rounded the southern tip of Mallorca, and sailed up the rocky coastline. I am excited to return here in nine or ten months, and check out some of the deep water soloing that the area is famous for. Maybe I should try to get a bit stronger first. As the sun went down, we watched the lights of Mallorca fade into the distance, and started looking towards where we knew Minorca to be.
After a quiet night at sea we motored into a cool little patch of sand between an island and the small town of Es Grau and Illa d’en Colom. While it was windy all day and night, we had a nice relaxing time. Starlink enabled us to do some things on the internet, and remain in touch with anyone who cares where we are. We did some laundry, took a nap, and watched a movie. We slept well that night, knowing our Ultra anchor was well dug in. In the morning we put up sail and cruised the 10 miles back into the Mahon harbor. We had seen a large Mistral approaching in the weather forecast, and preferred to be tied up tight to a pontoon for the coming gale.
We hung out for four nights in Mao. We did some boat work, the most significant being re-installing the topping lift through the mast, as it had fallen out during the last passage. This went a lot better than I thought it would, and I only had to climb the mast twice. We also cleaned the boat a bit and organized some things. It was a nice stay, but we were ready to go by the end of our short stay. Unfortunately, the wind was still coming strongly from the north, and we could not make any more progress towards La Grande Motte. With another gale in the forecast we decided to sail around to the south side of the island, and take our chances on anchor.
It was another wonderful day of sailing around the corner. Mild sea state and decent wind allowed us to fly along under the code 0, and the sun was out as a bonus. We pulled into our anchorage and it was spectacular, except for all the little mountain goats making noise. Stupid goats. We were alone in the anchorage again, and we dropped in 2.5 meters of sand. We hunkered down, waiting for the wind, and enduring several strong downpours of rain. We were concerned about our electricity consumption, but it proved not to be much of a problem. The solar setup on the boat kept up well, and when the rain stopped we got out our foldable panel which boosted productivity significantly. We were able to use as much power as we wanted.
The gale blew in, but the most wind we saw was 20 knots, which was fine. We did re-anchor once, in order to accommodate a change in wind angle. Our anchorage, Cala Macarella, was great, except for the eastern swell, which seemed to work its way in, and sometimes felt a little violent. After three nights in that Cala, we decided to relocate two miles west to Cala Son Saura. This was much more open, and bigger. Not as much protection from the wind, but the swell was totally shut out. We anchored, then got out the foils and the dingy and spent a couple hours tow foiling around the bay. I ripped my wedding ring off along with a good part of two fingers, which wasn’t really that cool. The ring is in the bottom of the Cala somewhere, and my fingers are slowly healing.
